“Shane Kent, who made the plates and glazed the tiles for the restaurant, has just been in Cambodia and he brought me a bag of this pepper. It’s a white pepper that is floral, aromatic and slightly spicier than regular pepper. You could eat this with a fork and spoon or scoop it up on cabbage leaves (or iceberg heart leaves) and eat it with your hands.”

Ingredients

20 ml dry white wine

20 medium uncooked Crystal Bay prawns, peeled

1 tbsp olive oil

Japanese dressing

60 ml Japanese mayonnaise (¼ cup)

1 tsp lemon juice

½ tsp white wine vinegar

½ tsp mustard powder

60 ml olive oil (¼ cup)

½ tsp wasabi oil (see note)

500 gm white Chinese cabbage, heart only

3 spring onions, thinly sliced into rounds

Method

Main

1

Bring 1 litre water and 2 tbsp salt to the boil in a large saucepan, add wine, lemon juice and rind, return to the boil, add prawns and stir gently until prawns are just cooked (1 minute). Drain prawns on absorbent paper and cool.

2

Cut each prawn into three pieces, dress with 1 tbsp olive oil and season to taste with salt.

3

For dressing, whisk mayonnaise, lemon juice, vinegar and mustard powder in a bowl, then, whisking continuously, add olive oil and wasabi oil in a slow steady stream. The dressing should be thick but pourable. Season to taste with salt.

4

Break white cabbage heart into individual leaves and arrange on a plate, scatter with chopped prawns and drizzle with 80ml dressing. Scatter with spring onion, season to taste with Kampot pepper and salt flakes and serve with extra dressing.

Notes

Wasabi oil is available from Asian grocers. Kampot peppercorns are available online from Herbie’s Spices. If unavailable, substitute coarsely cracked white peppercorns.This recipe is from the April 2011 issue of.